Whales are returning and ORCA is helping make their future safer

This winter, ORCA’s research teams will return to the Southern Ocean aboard HX’s MS Fram, building on discoveries that are already helping shape whale protection. Keeping that work going is essential.

South Georgia was once at the heart of industrial whaling. More than 42,000 blue whales were killed in its waters, leaving a silence that lasted for decades. In January 2026, an ORCA survey helped reveal something extraordinary: an Antarctic blue whale photographed there in 2019 had returned.

Named Magrathea, this whale provided the first confirmed photographic match of an Antarctic blue whale at South Georgia across different years. One returning animal cannot tell us everything about a population. But it offers a precious clue, and shows what becomes possible when researchers keep watching. 

That is the purpose of ORCA’s Southern Ocean research programme, a major focus of our work this winter.

Our partnership with HX began in 2019. Since 2022, volunteer Research Scientists have conducted dedicated surveys from the bridge of MS Fram, systematically recording whales and their distance from the ship to help estimate how many use these waters.

Now entering its fifth survey season, the programme places teams on four voyages each year. Each three week journey takes them from Punta Arenas through the Falklands, South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula before returning to Chile.

These voyages provide repeated access to places where gathering scientific evidence would otherwise be difficult and expensive. In 2024, the work became part of the Darwin Plus project led by British Antarctic Survey, supporting sustained whale monitoring around South Georgia. darwininitiative.org.uk

The results are already significant

Data collected entirely by ORCA Research Scientists aboard Fram enabled the first estimates of fin whale density at South Georgia, presented to the International Whaling Commission’s Scientific Committee earlier this year.

Our research is also informing the review of South Georgia’s voluntary ten knot vessel speed limit and helping define areas around the Antarctic Peninsula where digitally mapped boundaries guide vessel operations to protect whales.

As whale populations recover and maritime activity increases, knowing where animals gather, and when, becomes essential. Recovery brings hope, but also a responsibility to reduce the risk of collisions.

The partnership extends beyond the surveys

Our scientists share expertise with HX bridge crews and Expedition Teams on whale identification, monitoring and avoiding collisions, while training expedition colleagues to support the research.

Guests become part of that story too. Lectures, wildlife watches, workshops and conversations reveal how an encounter with a whale can contribute to something much larger than the voyage itself.

This winter marks the final season of the Darwin Plus project. It should also be a foundation for what comes next.

Repeating these surveys year after year will help reveal whether whales return to familiar feeding grounds or move elsewhere, and how protection needs to respond. A single season offers a glimpse. Sustained research allows patterns to emerge.

Our ambition is to keep ORCA teams aboard Fram for years to come. Whales are returning to waters where they were once hunted almost out of existence. We need to keep learning how to make that return safer.